YTL continues commitment to environmental protection through donation

Kuala Lumpur – YTL Corporation is continuing its long term commitment to environmental protection by awarding a total of USD200,000 (RM680,000) to fund local conservation projects. The grants, at USD100,000 (RM340,000) each were awarded to two conservation groups, WWF-Malaysia and Rare Conservation, at a cheques presentation ceremony today.

The two established environmental NGOs were selected for their proven track record of successful conservation work both globally and locally, helping to educate communities, protect endangered habitats and species and raise awareness for the environment.

Speaking at the ceremony, Tan Sri (Dr.) Francis Yeoh, Managing Director of YTL Corporation Berhad said, “To have real impact on conservation and environmental protection, one must forge strong partnerships with those who are experts in the field, in order to make headway, create real impact and bring about real change”, in YTL’s decision to award the financial grants.

Tan Sri (Dr.) Francis added, "I have always felt that we (YTL) have a personal responsibility to get involved where possible because as business leaders, we have an ethical obligation to be part of the solution, especially with regards to the great opportunity God has given us to use our positions, influence, and connections to affect changes at a higher level, such as policy decisions and enabling important conservation efforts within and beyond our borders."

The event saw the heads of the NGOs, Dr Dionysius Sharma, Executive Director/CEO of WWF-Malaysia and Nigel Sizer, Vice President for Asia Pacific of Rare, share their plans for grant utilisation. WWF-Malaysia will strengthen its tiger conservation efforts, specifically to resolve the human-tiger conflict in the Jeli District, Kelantan. Factors such as rapid development and unsustainable logging have caused tigers and humans to involuntarily come into contact with each other, causing conflict. The increase of human-tiger conflict has costed human lives and removal of tigers from the wild. As such, WWF-Malaysia, harnessing expertise from its international network and past experiences, is working closely with local authorities and villagers to provide extensive education on conserving the tiger habitat and adopt better management practices in their farming activities. Key activities include educating and conducting awareness-raising programmes for the local communities, field-testing the better management practices guideline as well as encouraging the adoption of the guideline at other conflict areas.

Rare, a leading global conservation group based in the U.S, focuses on conducting educational conservation programmes that work directly with local communities in the world’s most threatened natural areas, motivating them to protect their natural surroundings. As this is their first venture into Malaysia, Rare themselves have committed to match YTL’s grant with a further USD200,000 that will enable them to establish three projects in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. They plan to partner with local Malaysian NGOs to help them improve their effectiveness in working with local communities and stakeholders in order to achieve measurable biodiversity conservation targets in the selected areas.

The YTL Grants are part of YTL’s efforts and long-term commitment to environmental protection following their highly successful Climate Change Week in March 2007. Climate Change Week was a weeklong initiative designed to raise the level of awareness on climate change and environmental awareness across the nation and the rest of the world.

Please note that
wwf.org.my, www.facebook.com/wwfmy, www.twitter.com/wwfmy, and www.youtube.com/wwfmy are WWF-Malaysia's only official digital channels. If you have any concerns or queries, please e-mail: contactus@wwf.org.my.